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The last Workman related branches are the Burbidge and Trowbridge families. Oliver Workman married Alice Burbidge at Swindon Baptist Church around 1900 and her mother was Emma Trowbridge. I have not been able to trace either family very far back though they aren’t without interest despite this.
The earliest Burbidge that I know of was Charles, Alice Workman’s Grandfather. He married Fanny Phillips at Amesbury Parish Church, Wiltshire, in 1851; Amesbury is a small town near Stonehenge. Their marriage certificate, despite being correctly filled in is as uninformative as possible. They married on the 29th of July 1851 and the current residence was just given as Amesbury for both of them. A Census that was taken only four months earlier shows Fanny living with her parents but Charles doesn’t appear in the town. The certificate gives his age as “full” which just means he was over 21 so gives little help in finding when he was born and, finally, it says that he was illegitimate, probably a significant handicap in those days and once again making it very difficult to find earlier information [2].
When they married, Fanny was over three months pregnant, a fairly common situation in Victorian England despite the image that ‘Victorian family values’ have today, and by the time that the birth of their son, Charles Albert, was registered in January 1852, one month after he was born, Charles had died! [1]
The only other information I have on Charles is that his marriage certificate gave his profession as Cordwainer, which means shoemaker, and a story that his parents were a vicar and a maid at Ludgershall which I haven’t been able to verify.
His wife, Fanny Phillips was 21 when she married and the 1851 census reported that she was living at home in Amesbury with her parents and two brothers. Her father was James, a Master Butcher, born at Devizes around 1792 and her mother, Sarah, born in Amesbury around 1791. The two brothers were Robert, aged 27, a Journeyman Carpenter, and James, 23, a Journeyman Butcher; Fanny was a Straw Bonnet Maker.
After her husband died I guess that Fanny returned to her parents home and possibly had her son there.
James PHILLIPS = Sarah Vicar - Maid
b 1792/3 | b Amesbury, Wilts |
Devizes, Wilts | 1791/2 |
Master Butcher | |
____________|___________________________ | _____________
| | | | |
George = Martha Robert James (1) Charles Fanny (2) George
BURBIDGE = PHILLIPS = LILLWOOD
b 1815/16 b1809/10 b1823/4 b1827/8 b < 1830 | b 1829/30 | Journeyman
Amesbury Ash,Kent Illegitimate| | Carpenter
Gardener & Laundress m 1851, 19 July, Amesbury |
Jobbing Cordwainer | Bonnetmaker |
Butcher d 1851 | d<1881 |
|Unable to Sign |
| her name ___|_________________
| | | |
Emma Charles Albert Annie John Frank
TROWBRIDGE = BURBIDGE LILLWOOD LILLWOOD LILLWOOD
b 1854, 1 May | b 1851 b 1859/60 b1861/2 b1864/5
Berwick St John, | 29 Dec Amesbury Amesbury Amesbury
Wiltshire | Amesbury Wiltshire
m 1873, 12 July, Amesbury, Wiltshire
| Journeyman Carpenter
| and Joiner
Oliver WORKMAN = Alice BURBIDGE
A few years later she re-married to George Lillwood, a Journeyman Carpenter, and she had at least three more children - Annie around 1859, John around 1861 and Frank around 1864. George was about two years older than Fanny, had been born at Cholderton about four miles from Amesbury.
In 1861 they were lodging with a woman of 67 called Christianna Lake in Amesbury. Fanny’s son Charles Albert Burbidge lived very nearby in her brother’s household. The elder brother, George Phillips, 45, was a Gardener and Jobbing Butcher and his wife, Martha, was 51 and a Laundress; she had been born at Ash in Kent. They had no children at home. The other brother from the 1851 census, Robert, lived with them; he was unmarried and still a Carpenter Journeyman.
This seems a close knit family but tragedy was again going to strike. By the next census, 10 years later, all of the older generation have gone and Charles, Alice Workman’s father, now 19, was left head of the household with the three Lillwood children to look after, his half brothers and half sister; Annie, aged 11, John, 9, and Frank 6. Charles was a Carpenter’s Apprentice from which I assume that he earned little and I would guess that they would have needed support to survive, perhaps from parish relief, but I haven’t checked the parish records to confirm this.
They lived at Church St, Amesbury and shared the house with a family called Lake - I do not know if there was some connection with the Miss Lake that the Lillwoods lodged with in the 1861 census. [1871]
On the 12th of July, 1873 Charles married Emma Trowbridge at Amesbury Parish Church - he was 21 and she was 19 and both were resident in Amesbury at the time.
The Trowbridge family came from Tollard Royal, a village in a small valley on the southern edge of Wiltshire, south east of Shaftesbury and the far side of Salisbury from Amesbury.
Emma was the last known child of Elias and Hannah Trowbridge who were both born at Tollard Royal around 1810 or just before but I haven’t been able to find christening or marriage entries for them. There was a Methodist Church in the village whose records begin in 1813 and have a number of Trowbridge christenings so it is possible that Elias was part of this non-conformist family and so his Christening isn’t recorded.
According to Emma’s birth certificate, Hannah’s maiden name was Pottle (or possibly Poffle) [1a] but I haven’t found a marriage to confirm this nor a christening for this name. Pottle was a fairly common local surname at that time but seems to have declined since then.
Elias and Hannah lived at Tollard Royal with their growing family until about 1850. In 1841 they seem to have lived in a house that was divided into four units as shown below
Name |Relation | Age | Rank, Profession | Born In
|to Head | of | | This
| of COND-| | | or OCCUPATION | County
|Family|ITION|Mal|Fem| | (Yes/No)
| | | | | |
Esau Trowbridge | | |20 | | Ag Lab | Y
Elenor Do | | | |25 | | N
Elen Do | | | 11mo| | Y
/
Mary Trowbridge | | | |50 | | N
Kitty? Do | | | |13 | | Y
William Hayter | | |44 | | Ag Lab | Y
Ann Do | | | |27 | | N
/
Elias Trowbridge | | |31 | | Ag Lab | Y
Hannah Do | | | |30 | | Y
Felix Do | | | 7 | | | Y
Maria Do | | | | 5 | | Y
Hezekiah Do | | | 2 | | | Y
Charles Do | | |5mo| | | Y
/
Joseph Pollel? | | |11 | | Ag Lab | Y
Pottol? | | | | | |
1841 - Tollard Royal (HO/1170/8 f9 p11)
Presumably these groups were related and possibly Mary was Elias’ mother.
Geographically Tollard Royal faces Dorset and is the only Wiltshire village on that side of the downs. Above the village, on the edge of the downs is Rushmore House and on the other side of the downs, linked by a track, is Berwick St John. The family moved here between 1847 and 1851 and were living in one of 5 houses at a place called Thompson’s Bottom in the 1851 census.
Elias Trowbridge | Head | Mar |43 | | Ag Lab | Wilts Tollard
Hannah Do | Wife | Mar | |40 | | " "
Filip Do | Son | U |17 | | Ag Lab | " "
Maria Do | Daur | U | |15 | | " "
Keria Do | Daur | U | |12 | | " "
Charles Do | Son | U |10 | | Ag Lab | " "
James Do | Son | U | 7 | | Scholar | " "
Hannah Do | Daur | U | | 5 | | " "
George | Son | U | 3 | | | " "
Mark | Do | U |2mo| | | " "
1851 Thompsons Bottom, Berwick St John (HO 107/1849 f 27 p 25)
The census enumerators seem to have had a problem with the name of their third child : In 1841 it is Hezekiah, by 1851 it had become Keria (a girl) and in 1861 it was Kerzea. She is the only child of Elias and Hannah for whom I have found a christening where she was called Kezia. The eldest son has also changed from Felix to Felip - did they have a difficult accent or were the enumerators who filled in the census forms not very good?
The family was now complete except for Emma who was born on the 1st of May, 1854 at Berwick St John. The birth was registered by her mother who wasn’t able to sign her name.
By 1861 they had moved to one of the cottages at Rushmore House and Elias has become a Dairyman. Some of the children had left home but they had two grandchildren living with them, one of them having been born in Middlesex.
Elias Trowbridge| Head | Mar |53 | | Dairyman Ag.| Wiltshire Tollard
Hannah Do | Wife | Mar | |55 | | " Do
Kerzea? Do | Daur | Un | |22 | | " Do
Hannah Do | Do | Un | |15 | | " Do
George Do | Son | Un |13 | | | " Do
Mark Do | Do | Un |10 | | Scholar | " Berwick St John
Emma Do | Daur | Un | | 6 | | " Do
Emihah? Do |GdDau | Un | | 3 | | Middlesex London
Edwin Do |GdSon | Un |5mo| | | " Berwick St John
1861 - 50 Bushmore* (Last of 7 at Bushmore) (RG9/1320 f18 p11)
(*Probably should read Rushmore)
In 1863 Elias died, aged 55, and was buried at Tollard Royal where his gravestone stands in a prominent position at the entrance to the graveyard.
After this I do not know what happened to the family. The eldest son, Felix, died on April the 9th, 1868 at Hong Kong and is remembered on the same stone at Tollard Royal.
Elias TROWBRIDGE = Hannah POTTLE / POFFLE?
|
b ~1807/8/10 Tollard Royal | b ~1805/11 Tollard Royal
Ag Lab |
Dairyman at Rushmore House ? | Unable to sign her name
Farrier |
|
d 24 Jun 1863 | d 24 Mar 1902 Bournemouth
i Tollard Royal | i Tollard Royal ?
|
________________________________________|_____________________________________
| | | | | | | | |
Felix/ Maria Hezekiah/ Charles James Hannah George Mark Emma
Filip Keria(fem) TROWBRIDGE
b 1833/4 b1835/6 b 1838/9 b 1840 b 1843 b 1845/6 b 1847/8 b 1851 b 1854, 1 May
|<--------------- All born at Tollard Royal -------------------->| Berwick Berwick
Ag Lab Kezia Ag Lab St John St John
x 1838 =
d 9 Apr 1868 20 Sep Charles Albert BURBIDGE
Hong Kong Tollard Royal b 29 Dec 1851 |
Amesbury, Wiltshire | Wilts
Labourer |
m 1873, 12 July, Amesbury
Journeyman Carpenter and Joiner |
Emma married Charles Burbidge at Amesbury on July the 12th 1873, when she was 19 years old. Her mother doesn’t sign as a witness but presumably gave her consent since Emma was under age. The marriage certificate describes her father as a Farrier (a smith who shoes horses), presumably another trade he had persued in addition to the ones listed in the census returns.
Hannah lived to be 91 and died at Bournemouth on March the 24th, 1902 and is also remembered on the grave stone at Tollard Royal but it doesn’t say whether she was buried there or not. There is no indication when this stone was erected - its style is consistent for both parents and Felix. It could have been done when she died or a gap could have been left for her entry between husband and son. It finishes with the lines -
BE YE ALSO READY FOR IN SUCH AN HOUR AS
YE THINK NOT THE SON OF MAN COMETH
Next to it is a very badly worn stone for a Mary Pottle who died April the 30th, 1856, aged 81. Relatives were often buried close together so it is possible that this is a relation of Hannah’s. The stone also has the name Lemuel Pottle who died at 81 years and E.........IDGE with the middle section missing which could be a Trowbridge.
The following is background information on the area partly written in the last century so giving some feel of what the area was like.
Some of the areas around Tollard Royal were very dry and people had to carry water a few miles in dry seasons - I don’t know if this applied to Tollard Royal
“This is, I believe, the only place in England 18 miles from a railway station. It takes as long to come from Salisbury as from London to Salisbury. The road is all over a down country and the house here is situated at the top of the highest hills on this high downy country, 800 feet, they say, above the sea. Immediately within sight of the house the country is bleak open downs, below these is an immense extent of beautiful wild wood, the remains of old Cranborne Chase and rough ground with old thorns scattered on the open downs. The estate goes for 20 miles with no neighbours.” (This last phrase must mean no other gentry - there were many small villages in the area).
“By a provision of the will of John Gime, who died in 1746, the great bell of Berwick St John church was to be rung for fifteen minutes at eight o’ clock every night from 10 September to 10 March as a sort of aural lighthouse, a beacon of sound, to guide benighted travellers who had lost their way on the broad rolling uplands of the chase ... this was still performed in the early 1960’s.
“Even by day a trackway could be uncertain .. the best guides .. were ‘Dorsetshire milestones’ - heaps of gravel or chalk .. In 1830 Surtees left the Great Western Turnpike at Blandford where he hired a yellow postchaise in which he was soon passing through divers fields, commons, and opens, and wandering about the tortuous by-roads which all countrymen delight to follow until he found himself on the trackless open down. To his anxious enquiry the post-boy replied, ‘It be all right - the house be just over the hill before us; these ‘ere heaps you see marks the road - they be what we call Dorsetshire milestones’”
(From Cranborne Chase by Desmond Hawkins p172)
After marrying in Amesbury, Charles and Emma remained there, having three daughters that I know of. Fanny was their first, born in 1874 or 1875, about a year after they married. Alice Amelia was born on the 5th of March, 1876 and Florence in 1878 or 1879 [census].
On Alice’s birth certificate Charles is given as a Journeyman Carpenter and in the 1881 census he was a Journeyman Carpenter and Joiner.
Apparently there was also a brother Alf who was put into a Dr Barnado’s home with two sisters. I do not know what happened to Charles and Emma but the fact that some of their children were put into Barnado’s homes implies that they either died young or were very poor. [Harry Workman]
Harry Workman remembers going with his mother Alice nee Burbidge to where her father Charles was buried in a paupers grave but I do not know when Charles or Emma died.
Some of the children went to Canada on a Dr Barnado’s trust where contact was lost. Later Bill and Marion Workman wrote to the Mayor of Toronto for help in finding Alf and the Mayor wrote back saying he knew Alf Burbidge. He had been successful in business but had no family. They wrote to him and Marion received a reply. He was planning to come to England with a nephew but died before the trip. When looking through his effects they found letters he had written that his housekeeper had hidden because she was hoping for some of his wealth and was worried that he’d leave it to people in England if they kept writing. [Harry, Marion or Bill Workman]
I don’t have any more information on Charles and Emma and the only other information I have on their children is on Alice after she met Oliver Workman which is covered above.